The National Examination Council (NECO) will adopt Computer-Based Test (CBT) in objective papers of its subsequent examinations, says Dr Paddy Njoku, the Chairman, NECO Governing Board. Njoku made this known on Thursday in Abuja during the board’s monitoring visit to the Model Secondary School, Maitama, centre of NECO Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination.
He said he was impressed with the progress of the examination as students and teachers conducted themselves well. The chairman said that the visit was informed by the fact that today’s paper — Mathematics — was compulsory for all the students.
CANDIDATES ON EXAM EXERCISE
“We will adopt CBT in papers that need computer in the next exams, but some other subjects are either practical or essay; so you cannot put everything under CBT.
“Mathematics is compulsory; so the hall will be full; that is why we decided to inspect them today.
“We do about four levels of monitoring; we have invigilators’ supervisors, security men and external monitors drawn from institutions of higher learning, who independently, monitor without getting involved in the administration of the examination.
“The board comes out to monitor and get direct assessment of the situation so that nobody tells stories and all these we do to ensure very strict control of our examination.’’ Njoku said that reports from all over the country indicated that the examination was going on fine.
He said the performance of students in the examination had improved over the last two years based on students who made five credits, including Mathematics and English. According to him, the performance will continue to improve “since the rot created over the years will take some time to fix”.
He blamed dwindling performance of students on the quality of teachers, adding that efforts were being made to address the problem. “ If we do not get the correct materials to teach the students in terms of teacher quality, we do not expect the students to do wonders. “We are trying to encourage, in our own way; the authorities to make sure that teachers are properly motivated to produce good students.
“We have to look at the quality and commitment of teachers and to make sure they are properly trained. “It is something that should be done in conjunction with other stakeholders,’’ he said. On his part, NECO Registrar, Prof. Abdulrashid Garba, said that in 2016, all objective examinations of the body would be CBT. He said he had been visiting schools in various states, adding that the visit to Model Secondary School, Maitama, was the Board’s monitoring.
“ In the schools visited so far, we have not seen anything that can cause disturbance; it has been complete compliance with the rules of the examination. “All centres in Nigeria have been adequately secured; in special areas like Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, extra security measure have also been taken.’’ Garba said that 975, 991 students were taking the examination nationwide. According to him, the results will be released 60 days from the date of the last paper which comes up on July 10.
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